"That bull come at him," <font color="blue">Phonetically, this would be </font color><font color="red"> "the bull come at 'eem" </font color> said one witness. "And just drills him real hard in the side and knocks 'em back."

"He hit him again and then he kind of went up in the air and hit the ground pretty bad," said the witness.

And while the bull did not have horns, it still weighs more than 1,000 pounds.

William Engle, a rodeo fan, talked to Davis after he was hit.
"I asked him if he was alright," said Engle. "He said, 'Yeah, I'm alright,' and like 15-20 minutes later he collapsed."

"Mr. Davis signed the waiver," said Fannin. "They were told. The crowd, everybody knew the risk."

Fannin says the contest is common to rodeos everywhere.
"We wait until we buck 30 bulls so the crowd can get a good idea exactly what these bulls are made out of," said Fannin.

"It's just something expected during a rodeo," said Chris Kenney, a rodeo fan. "He gets hit, people go 'Ahhh!,' and next thing you know it's over with."

But for Fannin it wasn't part of the show on Sunday.
When 9News asked Fannin if he had planned a "Ring of Fear" or "Last Man Standing" contest scheduled for Sunday, he said, "Yes, I did -- out of respect for their family I decided not to do it."

Rob Wells, who was a "Ring of Fear" participant, said even though he got hurt, he still had fun. /ccboard/images/graemlins/smile.gif

"Well, I didn't do it for the money," said Wells. "I just did it. They were just asking for nine volunteers -- I don't know why I did it."

9News tried to contact the Davis family Sunday to see if they will pursue any legal action against the "3 Bar F" Rodeo -- waiver notwithstanding.

Davis had recently undergone abdominal surgery but the coroner has not yet released a cause of death.
In the meantime, "3 Bar F" Rodeo plans to continue having the contests.

<font color="blue">I used to date a girl from Grant County. They know how to party down there. /ccboard/images/graemlins/smile.gif </font color>

PQQLK9

09-27-2004, 12:21 PM

Poor fellow, I guess it's like when Adrian asked Rocky why he wanted to fight....he said "I can't sing or dance". /ccboard/images/graemlins/cool.gif

wolfdancer

09-27-2004, 01:39 PM

Wally, that's really a tragedy...a stupid idea,and an unnecessary death, and the promoter sounds pretty callous, with his remarks.